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FTER the delivery of your royal father's perfon into the hands of the army, I undertaking to the queen-mother that I would find fome means to get acce to him, fhe was pleafed to fend me; and by the help of Hugh Peters I got my ad mittance, and coming well inftructed from the queen (his majefty having been kept long in the dark) he was pleased to discourse very freely with me of the whole ftate of his affairs: But, fir, I will not launch into an hiftory, instead of an epiftle. One morn ing waiting on him at Caufham, fmiling upon me, he faid he could tell me some news of myself, which was, that he had seen some verses of mine the evening before (being thofe to Sir R. Fanfhaw); and asking me when I made them, I told him two or three years fince; he was pleased to say, that having never feen them before, he was afraid Í had written them fince my return into England, and though he liked them well, he would advise me to write no more; alledging, that when men are young, and have little elfe to do, they might vent the overflowings of their fancy that way; but when they were thought fit for more serious employments, if they still perfifted in that course, it would look as if they minded not the way to any better.
Whereupon I food corrected as long as I had the honour to wait upon him, and at his departure from Hampton Court, he was pleafed to command me to stay privately at London, to fend to him and receive from him all his letters from and to all his corref pondents at home and abroad, and I was furnished with nine several cyphers in order to it: which truft I performed with great fafety to the perfons with whom we corref ponded; but about nine months after being difcovered by their knowledge of Mr. Cowley's hand, I happily efcaped both for myself, and those that held correspondence with me. That time was too hot and bufy for fuch idle fpeculations: but after I had the good fortune to wait upon your majefty in Holland and France, you were pleafed fometimes to give me arguments to divert and put off the evil hours of our banishment, which now and then fell not fhort of your majesty's expectation.
After, when your majefty, departing from St. Germains to Jerfey, was pleafed freely (without my asking) to confer upon me that place wherein I have now the honour to ferve you, I then gave over poetical lines, and made it my business to draw fuch others as might be more ferviceable to your majefty, and I hope more lafting. Since that time I never disobeyed my old mafter's commands till this fummer at the Wells, my retirement there tempting me to divert thofe melancholy thoughts, which the new ap paritions of foreign invafion and domeftic difcontent gave us: but these clouds being
happily blown over, and our fun clearly fhining out again, I have recovered the re, it being fufpected that it would have proved the epidemical difeafe of age, which t to fall back into the follies of youth; yet Socrates, Aristotle, and Cato did the ; and Scaliger faith, that fragment of Áriftotle was beyond any thing that Pindar omer ever wrote. I will not call this a dedication, for thofe epiftles are commonly er abfurdities than any that come after; for what author can reasonably believe, fixing the great name of fome eminent patron in the forehead of his book can naway cenfure, and that the first leaf fhould be a curtain to draw over and hide all leformities that stand behind it? neither have I any need of fuch fhifts, for molt of arts of this body have already had your majefty's view, and having paft the test of ear and fharp-fighted a judgment, which has as good a title to give law in matters is nature as in any other, they who fhall prefume to diffent from your majefty, will lore wrong to their own judgment than their judgment can do to me: and for thofe parts which have not yet received your majefty's favourable afpect, if they who feen them do not flatter me (for I dare not truft my own judgment) they will appear, that it is not with me as with most of mankind, who never forfake darling vices, till their vices forfake them; and that this divorce was not Frigiis caufa, but an act of choice, and not of neceffity. Therefore, Sir, I fhall only call. bumble petition, that your majefty will please to pardon this new amour to my old eís, and my disobedience to his commands, to whofe memory I look up with great ence and devotion: and making a ferious reflection upon that wife advice, it carmuch greater weight with it now, than when it was given; for when age and rience has fo ripened man's difcretion as to make it fit for ufe, either in private ablic affairs, nothing blafts and corrupts the fruit of it fo much as the empty, airy tation of being Nimis Poeta; and therefore I fhall take my leave of the Mufes, as of my predeceffors did, faying,
"Splendidis longum valedico nugis.
"Hic verfus & cætera ludicra pono."
Your majesty's most faithful
and loyal fubject, and most
dutiful and devoted fervant,
SURE there are pocts which did never dream
Upon Parnaffus, nor did tafte the ftream
Of Helicon; we therefore may fuppofe
Thofe made not pocts, but the poets those.
And as courts make not kings, but kings the court,
So where the Mufes and their train refort,
Parnaffus ftands; if I can be to thee
A poet, thou Parnaffus art to me.
Nor wonder, if (advantag'd in my flight,
By taking wing from thy aufpicious height)
Through untrac'd ways and airy paths I fly,
More boundlefs in my fancy than my cye:
My eye, which swift as thought contracts the fpace
That lies between, and first falutes the place
Crown'd with that facred pile, fo vast, so high,
That, whether 'tis a part of earth or sky,
Uncertain feems, and may be thought a proud
Afpiring mountain, or defcending cloud.
Paul's the late theme of fuch a
Has bravely reach'd and foar'd above thy height.
Now fhalt thou ftand, though fword, or time, or
fire,
Or zeal more ficrce than they, thy fall confpire,
Secure, whilft thee the best of poets fings,
Preferv'd from rain by the best of kings.
Under his proud furvey the city lies,
And like a mift beneath a hill doth rife;
Oh happiness of sweet retir'd content!
To be at once fecure, and innocent.
Windfor the next (where Mars with Venus dwells,
Beauty with ftrength) above the valley fwells
Into my eye, and doth itself prefent
With fuch an eafy and unforc'd ascent,
'That no ftupendous precipice denies
Accefs, no horror turns away our eyes:
But fuch a rife as doth at once invite
A pleasure, and a reverence from the fight.
Thy mighty master's emblem, in whofe face
Sate meeknefs, heighten'd with majestic grace;
Such feems thy gentle height, made only proud
To be the bafis of that pompous load,
Than which, a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only which fupports the spheres.
When Nature's hand this ground did thus advance,
'Twas guided by a wifer power than Chance;
Mark'd-out for fuch an ufe, as if 'twere meant
T' invite the builder, and his choice prevent.
Nor can we call it choice, when what we chufe,
Folly or blindness only could refuse.
A crown of fuch majestic towers doth grace
The gods great mother, when her heavenly race
Do homage to her, yet fhe cannot boast
Among that numerous, and celestial host,
More heroes than can Windfor, nor deth Fame's
Immortal book record more noble names.
Not to look back fo far, to whom this ifle
Owes the first glory of fo brave a pile,
Whofe ftate and wealth, the business and the Whether to Cafar, Albanact, or Brute,
Seems at this distance but a darker cloud:
And is, to him who rightly things efteems,
No other in effect than what it feems:
Where, with like haste, though several ways, they
Some to undo, and fome to be undone;
While luxury, and wealth, like war and peace,
Are each the other's ruin, and increase;
As rivers loft in feas, fome fecret vein
Thence reconveys, there to be loft again.
The British Arthur, or the Danish Cnute, (Though this of old no lefs conteft did move, Than when for Homer's birth feven cities ftrove (Like him in birth, thou fhould't be like in fame, | As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame) But whofoe'er it was, Nature defign'd First a brave place, and then as brave a inind. Not to recount thofe feveral kings, to whom It gave a cradle, or to whom a tomb; But thee, great Edward, and thy greater Son, (The lilies which his father wore, he won)
Edward III. and the Black Prince.
And thy Bellona, who the confort came Not only to thy bed, but to thy fame,
She to thy triumph led one captive king,
And like the block, unmoved lay: but ours,
As much too active, like the ftork devours.
Is there no temperate region can be known,
And brought that fon, which did the fecond + Betwixt their frigid, and our torrid zone?
Then didit thou found that order (whether love
Or victory thy royal thoughts did move}
Each was a noble caufe, and nothing lefs
Than the defign, has been the great fuccefs :
Which foreign kings and emperors cfteem
The fecond honour to their diademn.
Had thy great deftiny but given thee skill
To know, as well as power to act her will,
That from thofe kings, who then thy captives
In after-times should spring a royal pair,
Who should poffefs all that thy mighty power,
Or thy defires more mighty, did devour:
To whom their better fate referves whate’er
The victor hopes for, or the vanquish'd fear;
That blood, which thou and thy great grandfire
fhed,
And all that fince thefe fifter nations bled,
Had been unfpilt, and happy Edward known
That all the blood he fpilt, had been his own.
When he that patron chofe, in whom are join'd
Soldier and martyr, and his arms confin'd
Within the azure circle, he did feem
But to foretel, and prophesy of him,
Who to his realms that azure round hath join'd, Which Nature for their bound at first defign'd. That bound which to the world's extremeft ends, Endlefs itfelf, its liquid arms extends. Nor doth he need thofe emblems which we paint, But is himself the foldier and the faint. Here should my wonder dwell, and here my praife, But my fix'd thoughts my wandering eye betrays, Viewing a neighbouring hill, whofe top of late A chapel crown'd, till in the common fate Th' adjoining abbey fell: (may no fuch storm Fall on our times, where ruin muft reform !) Tell me, my Mufe, what monftrous dire offence, What crime could any Chriftian king incenfe To fuch a rage? Was't luxury, or luft? Was he fo temperate, so chafte, so just?
Were thefe their crimes? They were his own much more:
But wealth is crime enough to him that's poor;
Who, having spent the treafures of his crown,
Condemns their luxury to feed his own.
And yet this act, to varnish o'er the fhame
Of facrilege, muft bear Devotion's name.
No crime fo bold, but would be understood
A real, or at least a feeming good:
Who fears not to do ill, yet fears the name,
And free from confcience, is a flave to fame :
Thus he the church at once protects, and fpcils:
But princes' fwords are sharper than their styles.
And thus to th' ages paft he makes amends,
Their charity deftroys, their faith defends.
Then did religion in a lazy cell,
In empty, airy contemplations dwell;
* Queen Philippa.
+ The kings of France and Scotland.
Could we not wake from that lethargic dream,
But to be reftlefs in a worfe extreme?
And for that lethargy was there no cure,
But to be caft into a calenture?
Can knowledge have no bound, but must advance
So far, to make us wifh for ignorance;
And rather in the dark to grope our way,
Than led by a falfe guide to err by day?
Who fees thefe difmal heaps, but would demand
What barbarous invader fack'd the land?
But when he hears, no Goth, no Turk did bring
This defolation, but a Chriflian king;
When nothing, but the name of zeal, appears
"Twixt our beft actions and the worst of theirs ;
What does he think our facrilege would fpare,
When fuch th' effects of our devotion are?
Parting from thence 'twixt anger, fhame, and
Thofe for what's paft, and this for what's too near,
My eye defcending from the hill, furveys
Where Thames among the wanton vallies ftrays.
Thames, the most lov'd of all the Ocean's fons
By his old fire, to his embraces runs;
Hafting to pay his tribute to the fea,
Like mortal life to meet eternity.
Though with thofe ftreams he no refemblance
Whofe foam is amber, and their gravel gold;
His genuine and lefs guilty wealth t' explore,
Search not his bottom, but furvey his fhore;
O'er which he kindly spreads his fpacious wing,
And hatches plenty for th' enfuing fpring.
Nor then deftroys it with too fond a stay,
Like mothers which their infants overlay.
Nor with a fudden and impetuous wave,
Like profufe kings, refumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations ipoil
The mower's hopes, nor mock the plowman's toil:
But god-like his unweary'd bounty flows;
First loves to do, then loves the good he does.
Nor are his bleflings to his banks confin'd,
But free, and common, as the fea or wind;
When he, to boast or to difperfe his stores
Full of the tributes of his grateful fhores,
Vifits the world, and in his flying towers
Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, bestows it where it wants,
Cities in defarts, woods in cities plants.
So that to us no thing, no place is ftrange,
While his fair bofom is the world's exchange.
O could I flow like thee, and make thy ftream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not
dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
Heaven her Eridanus no more fall boaft,
Whose fame in thine, like leffer current, 's loft
Thy nobler freams fhall vifit Jove's abodes,
To fhine among the stars and bathe the gods.
Here nature, whether more intent to please
Us for herself, with ftrange.varieties,
(For things of wonder give no lefs delight,
To the wife maker's, than beholder's fight.
Though thefe delights from feveral caufes move;
For fo our children, thus our friends we love)
Wifely fhe knew, the harmony of things,
As well as that of founds, from difcord fprings.
Such was the difcord, which did firft difperfe
Form, order, beauty, through the univerfe;
While drynefs, moisture, coldnefs heat refifts,
All that we have, and that we are, fubfifts.
While the steep horrid roughness of the wood
Strives with the gentle calmnefs of the flood.
Such huge extremes when nature doth unite,
Wonder from thence refults, from thence delight.
The ftream is fo tranfparent, pure, and clear,
That had the felf-enamour'd youth gaz'd here,
So fatally deceiv'd he had not been,
While he the bottom, not his face had seen.
But his proud head the airy mountain hides
Among the clouds; his fhoulders and his fides
A fhady mantle cloaths; his curled brows
Frown on the gentle ftream, which calmly flows;
While winds and ftorms his lofty forehead beat :
The common fate of all that's high or great.
Low at his foot a fpacious plain is plac'd,
Between the mountain and the fream embrac'd:
Which fhade and fhelter from the hill derives,
While the kind river wealth and beauty gives;
And in the mixture of all thefe appears
Variety, which all the reft endears.
This fcene had fome bold Greek or British bard
Beheld of old, what ftories had we heard
Of fairies,fatyrs, and the nymphs their dames,
Their feafts, their revels, and their amorous
flames?
'Tis ftill the fame, although their airy shape
All but a quick poetic fight efcape.
There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts,
And thither all the horned hoft reforts
To graze the ranker mead, that noble herd,
On whofe fublime and fhady fronts is rear'd
Nature's great mafter-piece; to fhew how foon
Great things are made, but fooner are un 1one.
Here have I feen the king when great affairs
Gave leave to flacken and unbend his cares,
Attended to the chafe by all the flower
Of youth, whofe hopes a nobler prey devour:
Pleature with praife, and danger they would buy,
And with a fee that would not only fly.
The flag, now confcious of his fatal growth,
At once indulgent to his fean and Toth,
To fome dark covert his retreat had made,
Where nor man's eye, nor heaven's fhould invade
His foft repofe; when th' unexpe&ted found
Of dogs, and men, his waleful ear does wound:
Rouz'd with the noife, he fearce believes his car,
Willing to think th' illufions of his fear
Had giv'n this falfe alarm, but freight his view
Confirms, that more than all he fears is true,
Betray'd in all his ftrength, the wood befet;
All inftruments, all arts of ruin met;
With thefe t' avoid, with that his fate to meet;
But fear prevails, and bids him trust his feet.
So faft he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has loft the chafers, and his ear the cry;
Exulting, till he finds their nobler fenfe
Their difproportion'd speed doth recompence;
Then curfes his confpirice feet, whose scent
Betrays that fafety which their fwiftness lent.
Then tries his friends; among the bafer herd,
Where he fo lately was obey'd and fear'd,
His fafety feeks: the herd, unkindly wise,
Or chafes him from thence, or from him flies,
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn
To his friends' pity, and purfuers' scorn,
With fhame remembers, while himself was one
Of the fame herd, himself the fame had done.
Thence to the coverts and the confcious groves,
The fcenes of his paft triumphs, and his loves;
Sadly furveying where he rang'd alone
Prince of the foil, and all the herd his own;
And like a bold knight-errant did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the dame;
And taught the woods to echo to the stream
His dreadful challenge and his clafhing beam.
Yet faintly now declines the fatal ftrife,
So much his love was dearer than his life.
Now every leaf, and every moving breath
Prefents a foe, and every foe a death.
Weary'd, forfaken, and pucfucd, at last
All fafety in defpair of fafety plac'd,
Courage he thence refuraes, refolv'd to bear
All their affaults, fince 'tis in vain to fear.
And now too late he wishes for the fight
That ftrength he wafted in ignoble flight:
But when he fees the eager chafe renew'd,
Fimfelf by dogs, the dogs by men pursued,
He ftraight revokes his bold refolve, and more
Repents his courage, than his fear before;
Finds that uncertain way, unfafest are,
And doubt a greater mifchief than despair.
Then to the ftream, when neither friends, nor force,
Nor fpeed, nor art avail, he fhapes his courfe;
Thinks not their rage fo defperate to effay
An element more merciless than they.
But fearlefs they purfne, nor can the flood
Quench their dire thirft; alas, they thirst for
blood.
So towards a fhip the oar-finn'd gallies ply,
Which wanting fea to ride, or wind to fly,
Stands but to fall reveng'd on thofe that dare
Tempt the laft fury of extreme despair:
So fares the flag, among th' enraged hounds,
Repels their force, and wounds returns for woands.
And as a hero, whom his bafer fo s
In troops furround, now thefe affails, now those,
Though prodigal of life, difdains to die
by common hands; but if he can defery
Some nobler for approach, to him he calls,
And begs his fate, and then contented falls :
So when the king a mortal fhaft lets fly,
From his unerring hand, then, glad to die,
Proud of the wound, to it refigns his blood,
And ftains the crystal with a purple flood.
He calls to mind his ftrength, and then his fpeed,This a more innocent, and happy chafe,
His winged heels, and then his armed head;
Than when of old, but in the felf-fame place,
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